Victory vital for finances

DALEéS financial director Graham Morris has labelled Saturday afternoonés FA Cup clash with Oxford éthe most important game of the seasoné as the club looks for a money-spinning run in the famous old knockout.

DALEéS financial director Graham Morris has labelled Saturday afternoonés FA Cup clash with Oxford "the most important game of the season" as the club looks for a money-spinning run in the famous old knockout.

The é650,000 raised by reaching the fifth round two seasons ago under Paul Simpson cleared debts and balanced the books. Now Morris is keen for another major cash boost as Dale continue the fight to keep their heads above water, both on and off the field.

"Ités the most important game of the season," he said. "We budget to lose é250,000 a year and a good run in the FA Cup eats in to that deficit. We really need to reach the third round to balance the books.

"To be honest, ités more important to clubs like us because we donét attract big attendances. Bristol Rovers and Oxford, for example, can rely more on their gate money."

Victory against the Ués will earn Dale é16,000 from the prize fund and give them a shot at bigger amounts in the second (é24,000) and third round (é40,000) stages. Reaching the third round also offers the opportunity of drawing a Premiership club, adding large gate receipts and TV money to the ever-increasing pot.

"Just to win in the first round is big bucks. If you get to the third round thereés a chance you could get drawn against Arsenal or Manchester United away, where our share could be worth somewhere between é300,000 and é400,000, so Iém looking forward to a win against Oxford."

Morris revealed the board aim for at least the second round when they draw up the annual budget.

"When we look at what weére going to bring in cash-wise, we think ités likely weéll get through to the second round," he said. "But there are 80 teams trying to achieve that and obviously the clubs from League One should stand a better chance."

The clubés money man also explained how important that run under Simpson, which ended in a 3-1 defeat by Wolves, was to the finances.

"We were losing money that year and the cash raised from the Cup run cleared all the debts. We are still level," he said.

Current manager Steve Parkin is governed by different rules, most notably the Football Leagueés agreement clubs cannot spend more than 60 per cent of their income on wages.

"We are at the 60 per cent mark now," said Morris, "so weéve got to tread carefully.

"If we do progress then 60 per cent of the prize money could be spent on wages. But the turnover is less than we anticipated because attendances are not good, so we cannot clear the deficit on gate money alone."